March 21st 2023

Chapter 80
We Shine As Sisters

They returned from their vacation. They started at camp… and camp… and camp. And before that could all become their day to day, they had one other big thing. Still in that first camp week, Haley Hunter was turning fourteen years old, and when she'd been asked about what she wanted to do, she'd had a very clear answer at the ready. Naturally, she wanted to do something with her friends and classmates, everyone from her other activities… but most of all, she wanted to call for a Sleepster. And they were happy to give it to her.

It wasn't going to be a massive one, not the kind where they had so many guests that they'd resorted to going to the Zvolensky house. She wanted her siblings – the Hunters as much as all the Hart-Lanes – the spouses and the kids, and that was all.

"No Madelyn?" Maya had asked, surprised that Haley wouldn't want her best friend there.

"We're not talking right now," she'd admitted with a frown, and behind them, Maya had been treated to headshakes and several other gestures that boiled down to 'trust us, it's a whole thing right now' from her parents and the other Hunters.

So, she'd left it alone because what else was she going to do? She didn't go digging for details, didn't really get the chance as this had been shortly before she'd left for the family trip. Instead, she'd focused on getting everything settled the way Haley wanted it, the siblings and their families, girls and guys… Part of her hoped that, by the day of the sleepover, the problem with Madelyn would have been settled, but the day came and clearly it had not, so they just had to go on without her.

The most awkward part came when, while out shopping for their Sleepster supplies, the Friars had run into Madelyn and her family. If they'd had the chance, both Maya and Lucas would have done what they could to either not be seen by the teenager, or at least to pass and let it be over. Except…

"Madelyn!" Remy blurted out when she saw her. Before either of her parents could stall her, she took off running toward her, Lucy and Kacey quickly tagging along. If it wasn't that the pair of them were sitting in the grocery cart, it was very likely that the little sisters would have gone running, too, but as it was, all they could do was stretch around and try to climb out, to no avail.

Well, it didn't have to be a big problem, right? They'd just tell her hello, and then they could go on their way, she didn't have to know about the Sleepster or anything like that… at least not until the triplets told her all about it, how it was going to be because of Haley's birthday, which she had to know all about already, of course. She would be there, wouldn't she? The girl looked like she didn't know what she was supposed to say or do, and they couldn't blame her. They could also see that this new information, kindly shared as it had been, left her looking kind of wounded. Rather than let it get any worse, Maya and Lucas quickly collected their daughters, wished the Carters a good day, and they went on their way.

The triplets had no idea why everyone was acting so strange, and they stayed that way until they could go and start thinking about other things. They got everything they needed, and they headed back home. The kids went and played outside while their parents went inside and put away their purchases.

"Is it just me or did it look a lot more like Haley's the one who stopped talking to Madelyn and not the other way around?" Lucas asked and Maya sighed. She spent most of the year neck deep in teenage drama, friendships and romances, breakups, and fights. She'd been forced to think the same thing after the encounter at the store, but even then, she didn't want to get into it. It sort of felt like cheating, didn't it?

"Whatever it is, if Haley wants to talk about it, we'll talk about it. Otherwise, I don't think I can…"

"I get it," Lucas nodded, and they left it alone.

The subject of Madelyn Carter didn't come up again, not that day or the next, with their guests coming along and Haley's Birthday Sleepster kicking off. They had plenty to keep them busy as it was.

In just a few days, Ella and Taylor would be taking off for their honeymoon. It didn't seem so long ago that they'd watched the two of them exchange their vows, and now that was nearly two weeks behind them. They couldn't get over how their reunion had felt a snail's crawl away from them, and now they'd been back together, living together, married, for all this time already. It felt like a dream, but it was absolutely, completely real. It was everything they'd been waiting for. Especially for having Tori there with them. They were getting the house all settled in, which was a process if there ever was one, and the young Friars understood it all too well, remembering when they had transitioned first to the house in Houston and then to this one, on their own for the first time.

When the three of them arrived, Ella, Taylor, and Tori, Marianne was quick to snatch up her sister and bring her to the piano. Some might say that, by now, she didn't really need to have lessons anymore, but it was about so much more than learning for her. It was about this time with her sister, and especially now that she was about to be gone for a while, after Marianne herself had been gone, too, they needed to have a quick session together before the others came along. Anyway, as far as she saw it, she still had plenty left to learn from her big sister. So, they sat together at the piano, drawing the attention of the triplets in audience as they watched their teacher learn from her teacher.

"Hey, hey!" Lucas had to smile and laugh when he opened the door to the Arroyo family, the piano lesson still going, and soon had the arms of his nephew around his legs. "Afternoon, Felix, happy to have you," he leaned to tell the boy. The three-year-old looked up at him, looking very much like his father but with splashes of his mother that, familiar as they were to him for existing in his daughters, he could not miss. He was wearing his mini camp shirt, which, according to Cara and Mateo, was so beloved to him that they would struggle to get him to wear anything else these days. It was a good thing then that they had more than one, so they could swap them out to clean, but sooner or later that wasn't going to work anymore, was it?

It was almost just as important to him that his baby brother Manny would be wearing his shirt, too, that way they would match. The four-month-old probably didn't care one way or the other, so his parents didn't mind humoring his older brother… even as they looked at all these baby clothes he was going to grow out of without having worn them much if at all if this kept up. Luckily for them, if they could say it that way, the family may yet have a way to resolve this particular issue.

"You're not serious…" Maya paused, the moment she saw her little sister. Cara blinked.

"What?" she asked, and oh, she was trying so hard to play innocent right here, like she genuinely had no idea, but it was no use. Still, for courtesy's sake – in the event that they were keeping this quiet – Maya directed her to follow into another room.

"Again? Already?" she whispered, and Cara looked like she'd really had no idea that Maya had figured it out, and now she was debating whether it was as she thought it was. But Maya tipped her head, holding her gaze, and Cara let out a breath.

"There's no way you can tell, I just found out like two days ago!"

"Yeah, well, your face does the same thing my face does, I can't explain it," Maya shrugged and waved this off, the better to focus back on the real important thing here, which was that with her second child still little more than a tiny babe who was barely sleeping his nights as it was, Cara was already expecting her third.

"Okay, well, it's not like we planned it, this just… happened…" she sighed, sounding very glad at least to be able to unburden herself with one of her siblings at last. "Please don't tell anyone, okay? We weren't going to tell yet and…"

"Not a word," Maya promised and, after a beat, smiled and reached over to hug her little sister. "Congratulations, Mama."

"Thanks," Cara chuckled, then, "What thing with our faces?" Maya snorted and pulled her over to where they could peek into the living room, to spy on their little sister. Eliza stood near the piano, a hand to her growing belly as she listened to her nieces and gently swayed on her feet. "Okay, I kind of see it now," Cara finally nodded.

The birthday girl arrived with Nellie, Gracie, and MJ, last of all as had been planned. This all was for her, after all, so they were ready for her, balloons and banners and noisemakers, all of it. She smiled and laughed, making her way through the room, thrilled to have them all there. It wasn't completely out of the ordinary for them to be together, all at once, but the Sleepster made it different, made it better, and all of that came especially with the nighttime and the morning.

"You're not sending me to bed with them, are you?" Haley asked, that evening, when they started to see to the little kids, who had started dozing off, one by one.

"I don't know, should we?" Nellie teased, grinning.

"I'm fourteen!" Haley started to protest, but when most of her siblings echoed these words even as they emerged from her mouth, she realized they were messing with her, and she laughed with them.

"You were just waiting for this part, weren't you?" MJ asked, pulling her into a side hug.

"Are you saying I asked for a whole sleepover just to stay up late with all you guys?" The consensus said yes. "Well… It's about time, isn't it?" They agreed. They laughed, but they agreed. After a few seconds, they guessed there was something else that she'd wanted, in calling this Sleepster, and it was to get to tell them something big. "Guess what, I booked another movie, and they might let me train and do stunts this time!"

It was another surprise that day for Maya, after Cara's news. This one, going by the looks on even the other little Hunters' faces, had been guarded just as closely as the Arroyos' secret. After the initial surprise had worn off though, they all reacted accordingly, coming in to congratulate Haley and ask for more details. There wasn't much of it yet, except that she'd probably be heading out very soon, and she would miss the start of the school year. Maya couldn't help but wear the question on her face in that moment and, by the way Haley spotted it and reacted, as much as she tried not to, maybe she'd been right. She'd wondered if this new movie situation was at the heart of the quiet happening between Haley and Madelyn, and it looked as though it might. Was Madelyn jealous? Had she said something? Whatever it was, it had been enough to pull the two of them apart. Would it be for good? Could they fix this? She hoped they could… Even if she tried to keep it reined in, Haley couldn't hide it. She missed her best friend.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners